Audiobook Review of "Life" by Keith Richards
There are two things that
stick out about the audio book, Life, by Keith Richards.
One: it's 22.5 hours long. Two: it's worth the listen. Oh, and
it's also a great value. Life is a cross-country drive's
worth of entertainment for $39.98. Put another way, one hour of
solid rock legend costs less than a cup of gas station coffee. If
you're craving a wild trip without any consequences, Life is a
magnificently cheap thrill.
The Rolling Stones have
authored so many chapters in the annals of rock-n-roll history you'd
have to be living in another dimension not to know something
about the band. Musicians come and go, but the Stones have been
cranking out tunes people still want to listen to for the last 50
years. It's hard to argue with the staying power of a band like
this.
Life opens with an
amusing antidote about Richards and Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood
being pulled over for drugs in the redneck backwaters of Arkansas in
1975. Jail time was avoided but the judge (rumored by Richards to be
highly intoxicated at the time) confiscated his hunting knife and
insisted they pose for pictures. In 2008, Presidential hopeful and
former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee tried to shed his nerd image
by masterminding a pardon for Richards. Such is the charmed life of
one of the most notorious rock stars the world has ever known.
Life is loaded with
intriguing tales about Richards' outrageous lifestyle, but also
catalogs an obsessive devotion to his craft. A picture emerges of a
man more concerned with creating music than being a member of the
rock-n-roll aristocracy. Fame and fortune come off as being an
accidental perks.
Naturally, there are scores
of women, but again, this isn't presented as a primary goal.
Richards appears to gravitate toward women with extraordinary
personalities and talent such as Anita Pallenberg. Later, he marries
Patti Hansen, a successful American model. Between the two women,
Richards fathers five children, one of whom dies as an infant while
Richards is out on tour.
And then, of course, there
are the drugs. Who
can resist such a voyeuristic peep into someone else's
private
hell? Richards
recounts his heroin addiction and the legal problems it caused in
frank detail. He looks upon the ordeal almost like a neutral third
party, neither bragging about it nor engaging in the sanctimonious
disapproval of someone who has since discarded a bad habit.
Also tantalizing are the juicy bits concerning Richards' numerous
spats with Mick Jagger. Reality TV has nothing on this group. Their
relationship, spanning more than 50 years, begins with them living
together in a filthy flat, stealing food just to stay alive. They'll
go on to sleep with each other's girlfriends and sling not-so-subtle
jabs through the press. Richards displays an undying amount of
respect for Jagger's music writing and entertainment abilities, all
the while maintaining an annoyance with the man himself.
In general, the audio book version of Life is narrated in a
very compelling manner. The listener is drawn in and made to pay
attention to even mundane details. The only thing that doesn't quite
mesh is the changing of the guard with the narrators. Speaking in
first person for Richards, Johnny Depp voices the first five discs
and then abruptly stops. From there, Joe Hurley picks up the
narrative and continues until Johnny Depp suddenly re-emerges on disc
ten. Richards puts in a few words himself, providing comments on
the front end of the audio book, and carrying the torch for the last
disc and a half.
Life
can be described as one long Keith Richards song minus the guitar
riffs. If Richards is to
be envied, it shouldn't be for the trappings that come along with
supreme notoriety. What this cat nabbed was the ability to follow
his passion. Those who aren't fascinated by Keith Richards before
hearing Life certainly
will be afterwords.
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